REELGUY'S REEL REVIEW:
"The Men Who Stare at Goats" unconventional humorous drama
Maine Connection: One of Clooney's better early film performances is as the real-life fishing captain Billy Tyne in the movie "The Perfect Storm." The New Gloucester, Mass-based fisherman is a good, salt-of-the-sea gus whom Clooney inhabits quite well. A fishing performance any hard-working coastal Mainer would appreciate.
This unconventional film drew a reasonable amount of interest from general audiences over the last few weeks. The likely cause of the interest is the great casting of four leading men: George Clooney, Ewan McGregor, Jeff Bridges, and Kevin Spacey; who are each individually capable of opening a major film, let alone doing so together. The unusual nature of the film, a half-comedy/half-modern war picture, along with the title itself may cause some wary viewers to wait for the DVD release. This may not be a bad idea. This comedy based on real events is not for every viewer but the right film-goer will enjoy the picture’s free-wheelin' performances, barely rational plot, and plentiful moments of scene specific humor. "The Men Who Stare at Goats" is for the military-minded what "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" was for the journalistic and literary set.
McGregor is Bob Wilton, a newspaper reporter whose life takes an unexpected turn over the next year. With problems with his family and job mounting, Bob travels to Kuwait as a freelancer seeking to enter Iraq and cover the first Gulf War. Along the way he meets an unusual former soldier, Lyn Cassidy (Clooney), who claims he was part of a secret government unit with psychic powers. Lyn claims to be the most gifted of the group and explains in flashbacks the rise and fall of the organization. Bob puts himself in harm's way within a warzone to get the full story of a military project no one may ever believe existed, if he even believes in it himself.
Clooney is the star of the picture, giving an equal parts zany yet intensely serious performance. The humor from his character comes from how he truly believes in his "powers" and what he was trained to do. Lyn is threatening with both his nontraditional combat abilities and intense devotion to the "Jedi warrior" doctrine. Most of the compelling scenes in the picture come from simply watching his character do what he does. McGregor plays the straight man in the relationship and the skeptic. Wanting to believe for the sake of getting the story, Bob is eventually overwhelmed the constant state of danger with a potential mad man. Bridges plays Bill Django, Lyn's trainer and superior officer in the clandestine group. Spacey is the new recruit and Lyn's primary competition in the unit. Both Bridges and Spacey channel solid performances they've given in the past as a new-age hippie and envious antagonist, respectively. The strong performances help save an otherwise outlandish film.
The recurring flashbacks are well-ingrained within the modern story. It does not become the distraction it could have been. Occasionally, "The Men Who Stare at Goats" loses its narrative direction, with the characters lost in the desert, literally and figuratively, with no destination. The semi-serious delivery of the main characters can make it difficult to know whether to laugh or be somber in certain situations. The director does not always know how to tip the audience off to the movie's jokes. There is one particular scene of a naked soldier who goes on a shooting rampage in a military barracks that should have been excised from the picture, given the news of the Fort Hood shooting. Perhaps this was simply the case of an uncomfortable coincidence but there were only a few awkward laughs during that frightful scene.
"The Men Who Stare At Goats" is an unusual piece of cinema which may become a cult favorite but won't win over the masses. Clooney's "Three Kings" works better in mixing humor and social commentary; a chemistry "Goats" only occasionally gets right.
Rated R for language, some drug content and brief nudity.
